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Re: [ProgSoc] Flex



On Sun, 2007-07-22 at 12:11 +1000, jedd wrote:
> Or more specifically, how do we feel about Flex?

It's not without flaws, but for the most part it makes things a buttload
easier.

At my company we've gone through the process of developing a web-client
in Actionscript 2, followed by re-writes in Actionscript 3. Both of
which were comprised of custom components, skinned using our own
home-baked methods.

We've now made the move towards using the Flex framework, given that it
gives us fewer headaches than building everything from scratch.

Here's a couple of things I like about it:

  * Pre-built components for everything you'd need for a low-medium
    complexity prototype
  * Drag & drop managers
  * Skinning with CSS (albeit *very* basic)
  * Bridge to the desktop (Flex + Apollo framework)
  * Flash player cache (as of Flex 3), means that you only need to 
    download the framework once (this solves the problem everyone has 
    with Flex skyrocketing their deployed file sizes)
  * Forms don't suck arse (tabbing, labels, validation work as expected)
  * Full-screen, hardware accelerated video
  * The developer community is booming
  * There's demand (and money)

You might find it useful to load up the Flex 2 Language Reference
[1]...anything prefixed with mx.* comes from the Flex framework.

Another point to mention is that Flex has been open-sourced under the
MPL licence [2]. You still have to deal with the fact that the Flash
Player is closed source, a little buggy in places, and slightly behind
on Linux...but for the most part it's great. I use Linux to write my
Flex applications (just grab the Flex SDK which includes the mxmlc
compiler), and you're away. There's no need for Flex Builder / Flash
CS3.

Let me know if you need more info.


Cheers,

--
Nathan de Vries

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